Professional parental assistance: an alternative for abandoned children and those coming from underprivileged families

The Chisinau City Council (CMC) on Thursday, July 17, approved a draft decision on setting up a professional parental assistance service within the municipal division for children's rights (DMPDC). The project provides for increasing the number of professional parental assistants, so that more children in Chisinau coming from underprivileged families or whose parents are unable to take care of them will be temporarily placed with the families of parental assistants, Info-Prim Neo reports. DMPDC head Svetlana Chifa told Info-Prim Neo that a parental assistance project was first implemented in Moldova in 2000, with the support of nongovernmental organizations working in this field, notably Every Child Moldova, which provided various social and alternative services for families and children in risky situations. Based on this experience, the DMPDC has set up the Professional Parental Assistance (PPA) Service, whose concern is to find a temporary but caring family for the children left without parental care, until they can return to their biological families or are taken by adoptive parents. Svetlana Chifa has said that the beneficiaries of the service are the children who are temporarily or permanently deprived of their family environment, children whose biological needs cannot be ensured by their biological families because their parents are either missing or in prison. Also, such families can provide shelter to the children who are or may become victims of various forms of violence, human trafficking, abandonment, parental recklessness, or exploitation. At the same time, the PPA Service also means care for children younger than 14 and who committed a crime which they cannot be tried for due to the young age. The teenagers in the age group 14-18 who have been sentenced to probation or have been absolved from criminal punishment are also eligible for the service. Svetlana Chifa said that it is key to select the children coming from orphanages or residential schools. If there is no possibility for these children to be adopted or taken back by their biological families, they may stay for a longer period of time in the care of the professional parental assistants, sometimes unlimited, if the assistants agree, Svetlana Chifa remarked. The objectives of the PPA Service is to prevent abandonment and institutionalization of children by advocating family forms of care for children. Those willing to become professional parental assistants should submit an application to the PPA Service, which will be considered within 90 days. If selected, the aspirants shall attend at least 50 hours of instruction courses and, each year, at least 20 hours of continuous professional training. A professional parental assistant is entitled to a carer's allowance worth 500 lei for each child in care. In addition, they will receive a salary equivalent to that normally received by a social worker – around 750 lei. At present there are 8 parental assistants and the DMPDC hopes their number will increase to 10 by the year's end. For 2009, within the limits of the municipal budget, there is planned to train 18 other assistants. A parental assisting family may assume care for maximum 3 children, whom the family may support until the children reach 18.